On 11/8/2013 8:00 PM, Chris de Morsella wrote:
Perhaps you may not know that opiates were given to infants in the Victorian era to calm
them down -- and yes it did keep them quiet and happy (until they required another fix
of that special syrup... hehe).
But did they have a right to it?
In Italy (and many other countries) there is no legal prohibition for minors drinking
alcohol... and Italian kids begin drinking watered down glasses of wine quite early.
What is interesting to me is that extreme alcoholism is more prevalent in societies that
try to strangle the consumption of it than it is in say much of continental Europe where
the cultures are more lax.
Does this mean little children are downing shots of Grappa in Italian bars; of course
not the bar keep and clients would laugh them out of the establishment.
I grew up in Texas and there the law says you can drink if you're with a parent whatever
your age. I used to sip my parent's beers when I was five and have watered wine as a
nightcap. When I was in college and my mother or father visited we'd go out to a
roadhouse and have whiskeys all round.
It seems to me that the societies that manage such things through non official channels
of custom and social pressure are doing much better in terms of the vital statistics
that are associated with sever alcohol abuse.
Sometimes, less is more.
So why complain about the opium trade.
Brent
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